BETINA IN AFRICA

…make a gin & tonic. That was the text on a greeting card I bought in London a few years ago. This year most of us will have had difficult situations and disappointing events which we have needed some tools or strategies to get through. And even though a delicious G&T is rather wonderful, it is most likely not the ultimate solution.

My most effective ‘method’ is definitely being in nature – and in African nature, preferably – and to make myself busy with rewarding work. So it has been great and absolutely the perfect time for me to be back in the bush and back at work. 

I actually arrived back in Tanzania already at the beginning of September. I left Denmark equipped with a negative corona passport, a mask & a shield after a lot of lovely family time in Denmark. Also there I spent a lot of time in nature with forest walks, day trips and a little holiday by the coast.

Before coming back into the bush, I had time to head to the south of Tanzania to see friends in Iringa, do a quick safari and a few days on the beach… and here are my thoughts and reflections from there.

^{11th September}
Sunrise over Ruaha… 
Whilst listening to a variety of birdsong and the occasional hippo grunt. I am becoming increasingly aware of how much happier I am when surrounded by beautiful nature. 

Ruaha National Park is Tanzania’s largest park – I’ve been here before, a few years ago, but I was excited to return even if it was just for a quick visit. 

I love a good safari, but it’s about much more that the animal sightings for me – it’s also amazing to experience the different landscapes, trees and bushes. It all adds to the experience. The calmness of nature makes me feel very content and often quite emotional. 

^{14th September}
Real Tanzania…
I love exploring the local communities when I travel and coming all the way Lake Nyasa (which is the Tanzanian name for Lake Malawi), gave me a lovely feeling of being in the Tanzania that I fell in love with back in 2016.

It is quite a poor community in Matema village and you can really see the effects of the lack of tourism activity with many accommodation options on the beach being closed and so many people out of jobs.

They have a primary school, but no secondary school and unfortunately I saw many boys in their late teenage years sitting at the street bars drinking the local spirit, Konyagi, even as early as 11am. It was a very sad sight.

It made me feel a little better that I was able to add a little money to the community through holidaying there, even if it just was a drop in the ocean, and I thoroughly enjoyed being there – relaxing and exploring.

Anyway, back to the now – to the bush and to work. I feel so incredibly lucky to be back at Singita and being able to do what I love the most. The beauty of this place, the calm of the nature and the kindness of the people is most definitely my G&T right now.

How time flies! Cannot quite believe it’s been almost six weeks since I left Tanzania but at the same time it feels like I have been away for ages – although, the first two weeks in isolation here in Denmark went quickly. I really enjoyed having my own space and just relax, cook, go for walks in nature and continue my work from afar.

Since I left, I hear from my friends in the bush that the great migration is continuing and it has made me reflect on having that experience for the first time myself in my last couple of weeks there. How lucky to be able to experience that – on a virtually deserted savanna and for free! The vast numbers of wildebeest were amazing and their grunts could be heard from far away! Pictures won’t do it justice but here they are anyway…

 
After my isolation I went for a Corona test. It was at a drive-in tent, quick swap at the back of my throat and that was that! 72 hours later I knew I was negative. The following week I paid for an antibodies test, which was negative as well.

So the bubble I lived in and the careful way I travelled was successful. The organisation in the airports was excellent also – especially in Frankfurt, they know how to do this stuff, the Germans – so that also helped staying safe during the travels. Even though it was intense to travel during this time, it has not scared me off doing it again.

And I got the most wonderful send-off from Mount Kilimanjaro – was quite emotional!

I will stay here in Denmark until early September when I will return to Tanzania (barring another lock-down of course). Fingers crossed there will be some work for me, but if not I will at least be sure to find some voluntary teaching to do.

This post is from 18th June, I just didn’t manage to publish it, it seems…

—-

I have started my long journey back to Denmark. I flew out of the bush yesterday morning. Said a tearful goodbye to all the wonderful people I have spent so many fun, emotional and happy moments with – whether it has been in the lodges, over a delicious meal, at the swimming pool, in the classroom, over a board game, at the bonfire or at the bar! I will never forget the generosity Singita has shown me by letting me stay safe in their little community or the support that the people who work there have given me.

The last couple of weeks have been filled with lots of opportunities to see the great migration and all the wildlife activity that comes with that… has been amazing – will do a separate post on that when I reach Denmark!

I have been a little apprehensive coming out of the protected ‘bubble’ I’ve been in, and it has been odd having to think about not touching my face and wearing a mask etc. And I’m not sure what to expect for the flights and airports… it will be quite surreal to fly in this corona time, I expect.

I’ve stayed the night here in Arusha and heading to Kilimanjaro airport this afternoon to continue my travels. My trip will take me through Addis Ababa and Frankfurt before landing in Copenhagen on Friday morning. After a night’s rest at the airport hotel, I will travel to Jutland to reach a little rented house by a lake for 2 weeks of self-isolation.

Here in Tanzania life seems to be as it used to be – busy streets with plenty of people buying and selling, and I would say that only one in 200 people wear a mask around town and there’s no such thing as social distancing – plus no testing still, so nobody knows what the situation really is… I guess not much anyone would be able to do anyway… Kids will go back to school on the 29th Jun, so now all they need to truly get back to a normal state is tourists – people are really struggling financially, it’s tough for all of those who are reliant on tourism for their income…

So I’ll try to add a little to the local economy today with some shopping… need to fill a bag with snacks for my travels to avoid eating at the airports. And get a few more antiseptic wipes and all that stuff…

 

 

The weeks are flying by… it’s almost June, almost half way through the year even! I have now been staying here in the bush for four months or 121 days – not that I’m counting as such – and it’s been an overwhelmingly positive experience, also throughout the isolation weeks.

There have naturally been a few low moments along the way – which is part of life – but the thing which makes me feel the most sadness or anxiety is the same as for many people, I suspect; the uncertainty.

When will I see my family? When will I return to work in Tanzania again? Will my business survive? When will I be able to hug and pop to the pub with my friends in London and in other parts of the world for that matter? Where is my next income coming from? When will I be back here at Singita to continue to work with my group of middle managers? And when will I see all the other people who are special to me here in Tanzania?

The frustration of not being able to know or plan for this has taken its toll this week. I have felt quite emotional about things that would not normally affect me. Identifying the things that give me energy and try to do more of that, has helped. And so has recognising the things that drain me so I do less of those things.

It has also given me a more personal reason to delve deeper into some of the emotional intelligence content that I use for my workshops and coaching relationships and I have purposefully been identifying my emotions. I’ve been trying to identify the situation that trigger these emotions and what my behaviours would and should be in these circumstances… The Dalia Lama talks about this as constructive and destructive emotions… i.e. what emotions will build you up and which will destroy you.

I am using this ‘feelings wheel’ to be able to be more specific about these emotions – you can Google it to get a large version, if any of you would like to try this type of activity 🙂 

Other news from here… 

I’m still busy with a few hours of training and coaching every week… but there’s also time for some fun activities like swimming, bread-making, game drives, scrabble games and puzzling! Oh and I had my hair cut, too!

And here are my two favourite wildlife sightings from the past couple of weeks. It’s been a long time since I have seen such a wonderful leopard. This is a female cub, not even a year old yet – so cute! And the hippos… they were particularly noisy and quite active last Sunday – it was such a special experience.

Corona update…

People ask me about the Covid situation in Tanzania but it is difficult to explain because nobody knows really. There’s not any testing going on and a lockdown is just not possible for a country like Tanzania, so who knows how much it is spreading!

But the government just announced that Tanzania is now Covid free and encouraged a nationwide celebration this past weekend with mass gatherings… [insert your own rolling eyes emoji here] They are welcoming tourists again so the borders and airports are opening again on 1st June.

It’s a weird situation and it’s hard for me to understand this ‘obvious lies approach’ but at the same time, what can they do?!? Tourism is a big chunk of the Tanzanian GDP, crime rates are increasing as people are losing their jobs, the healthcare would not be able to cope with testing and the impact thereof, people who are living hand to mouth every day would not survive lock down, the livelihoods of so many people are destroyed and there are no ‘care packages’ here! It’s heartbreaking to think about. BUT through various experiences as I’ve travelled to and lived in different parts of this country, I have learnt that Tanzanians are very resilient people… so I have to believe that they will get through this also!

And finally…

…the latest on my personal short term plan. I am provisionally planning a flight to Copenhagen for mid-late June, just going to wait and see how these first weeks of flights will go and then finalise everything as soon as possible. I feel ready to leave ‘my’ beautiful Africa behind for a little while, but also cannot wait to return again later in the year… oh, how I hope and wish that it will be possible to continue living my dream – and I guess that is my biggest concern of all… what if I can’t?!

We’re all isolating to some extent at the moment… we are challenged to 1) keep busy, 2) to stay connected with friends and family in different ways and – not least of all – 3) to stay sane.

I imagine that my isolation is very different to most people’s, however. And at times I feel rather guilty that my life has not actually changed dramatically – in fact, if I was to isolate anywhere, I could not think of a better place than here in the African bush.

The company, Singita, have been so incredibly kind to let me isolate here. All other consultants and non-employees, except one BBC camera man, have left the property and most staff are also sent home, so there are approx 300 people left in the game reserve.

Keeping busy

Having a day to day purpose is very important to me. So have been setting out my goals for this time in isolation – and I can highly recommend it – it helps me stay motivated…

I am for example learning something new – focusing on advanced consulting skills, designing engaging online training and Emotional Intelligence – am actually planning to design my own EQ module / programme which is suitable for the East African market – exciting for me to have the time for this!

I also keep busy with lots of ‘normal’ work including admin and report writing which always comes after my contracts, am also doing some volunteer training for different departments and have my own personal stuff to sort as well of course – expect that I will actually finally be able to finalise my website – has taken forever!

But my isolation also includes game drives around the 350,000 acre game reserve, sundowner drinks event, swimming and tennis at the main lodge, excellent food at the staff restaurant and lots of social activities such as BBQ every Friday! I am so, so lucky!

 

Connecting with friends and family

Easter was supposed to have been spent in Denmark – and even though I am not really a ‘celebrating Easter’ kind of person, I am sad that I was not able to make it home for that. Hardest is however to see how disappointed my parents were and how they sometimes find the isolation a bit of a struggle. The struggles of our loved ones are so often much harder to deal with than our own.

I am sort of used to connecting with friends and family from afar, but have definitely been connecting more than usual… think we just all have more time to stay in touch and of course there’s a real need for people to feel connected as well… Have been doing FaceTime exercise with my mum, English lessons with my nephew and generally just lots of video calls. I love hearing from everyone, so keep it up! 

Staying sane

As most of you will know, I can struggle in social settings – I am quite an introvert after all – so the feeling of living in a small commune of sorts is a challenge for me sometimes. there are around 50 people in the area where I live, so it’s the same people day in and day out…

I especially get quite frustrated when people here complain about the situation and the constant talk about Corona. The negativity can really drain me… I am not naturally a positive person, but I have really worked on that for the past five years or so, so I do have to get away from people once in a while – but luckily that is also possible! I can hide in my room, put my headphones in or just go for a walk or a swim on my own.

And of course, there are things that I miss – such as hugging, crisps, sport, connecting with my students’ and licorice – but most of all hugging… I have always enjoyed a hug, it is such a good feeling, but don’t think I realised how much… I guess, sometimes we don’t know how much something means to us until it is gone!

What’s next?

Short term plans are as follows: Extended visa – one month extra granted by immigration here. Will stay here until mid/end May and then travel to Denmark – if there are flights of course – at the moment Tanzanian airports are closed until 11th May. Probably won’t make it to London for quite a while, but that’s just the way things are right now.

Sending love to everyone. Be positive, be kind and take care of each other!

As a lot of Europe has been in ‘lock-down’ mode for the past few weeks, it is now also starting to happen here in Africa. Yesterday, Tanzania announced a 14 day quarantine for anyone arriving and all flights in and out of Zanzibar have been cancelled. It was bound to happen – and even though there have just been 12 confirmed cases by now, who knows how many people are actually infected.

There have been no guests here since the 19th March and now none will arrive for a while. The majority of staff have been sent home for the foreseeable future. I feel relieved that they have been sent on leave with pay (for now) – but am also acutely aware that this is going to hit this country and the people in it very hard. It will have a heartbreaking impact on a country like Tanzania, which is so reliant on tourism… the likelihood of crime and disputes going up is high. And I must admit that I was quite emotional saying goodbye to some of them, because who knows when I will see them again…

Anyway, am also totally sick of this being the only thing we can think and talk about these days, so let me instead share a little about the day to day in the bush now that we are having to keep busy in other ways that with guests!

The team are doing deep cleaning activities and maintenance jobs etc. and of course we are also doing lots and lots of training. I fell so fortunate that I can be here still giving my time and knowledge to people who really want to learn. I have extended my training to be for everyone, not just my ‘usual crew’ and encouraging my students to teach each other is also so rewarding. Oh and we have our temperature taken every day!

But we also have time for some more fun stuff. Important to try to keep the mood and attitude positive for the people who are still in camp. They naturally worry about their own health, their families and their jobs. Nobody is more aware than the Tanzanians themselves, of the trouble this country will be in if there are a lot of cases here… the health system is just not set up for that! Anyway, so we had Sunday Funday with goat BBQ and the lot – I was so pleased that we were able to give the staff the opportunity to have some fun together before most of them left on their lengthy leave.

In addition, I try to do some exercise with the people who wants to and I am also really benefiting from it. Have lost all the weight I gained over Xmas and more – and feel fitter than I have in many years. So… even though the world is a crazy place at the moment, let’s all try to to something positive for ourselves – it helps!

Stay safe everyone! Sending love and many positive thoughts… xx

 

Almost every conversation is about Coronavirus, almost every thought goes to our loved ones and there are many emotions to process and decisions to consider.

So many of you from ‘home’ have been in touch to check in with me… thank you! But I think I should be the one checking in with you all! How are you? Hope you are all staying safe and looking after yourselves and each other.

Here in Tanzania, there have been no confirmed cases yet, but Kenya has just closed their borders so people are getting more and more worried.  I am feeling very safe and comfortable here, though!

The lodges where I work are getting one cancellation after another, which of course is not very good for business… tourism and hospitality is going to take an almighty blow! And so will my business, I suspect. All plans are up in the air and even the already confirmed work here at Singita for the autumn could be in jeopardy… It’ll be a tough year!

So, what are my options? For now I am taking it a week at a time. I was supposed to return to Europe for Easter – to spend time with family & friends – but my visa is valid for another 5 weeks, so might just wait out the situation here (relatively isolated) in the bush. And after that – well, who knows! Not going to panic, but carefully monitor the situation and only make decisions when I need to.

So on that note – back to work! And don’t forget to wash your hands, dammit – and sneeze into your elbow. 😉

I’ve been following the situation and social media chat back in the UK about unskilled workers not being allowed to enter the UK after Brexit… this unskilled workforce that the government are talking about seems to be mainly targeted at the hospitality industry. And while it is true that many people who start out in hospitality do so without a university degree or other higher education, for example as a student job (just like me), unskilled it is not!

In my opinion, it is disgraceful to call a waiter or a chef unskilled – or anyone working within hospitality for that matter. It is a tough job which requires many, many skills, a hell of a lot of knowledge and impeccable behaviours. Meeting guests’ expectations – well, actually the aim is always to exceed them – is not easy!

My Sunday, for example, included the following…

• a couple of guests requested that instead of driving to one of the other Tanzanian camps the next morning, they would rather fly to the Singita property in Rwanda (bearing in mind that there are no commercial flights here in the bush!)
• a waiter was taken sick, so needed to source a replacement quickly
• a German guest was also sick and needed a paramedic to be called
• guests in one of the cottages reported no hot water
• power cuts during dinner service
• monkeys bathing and soiling in one of the guest pools
• and the most surreal of all, a guest lost her front tooth on her dinner plate, which was cleared before she noticed it… this was followed by a desperate (and rather disgusting) search in the kitchen food bin until the tooth was found – but then what!? How to affix this tooth in the middle of the bush with no dentist around the corner? She was devastated and cried her eyes out…

But when I said goodnight to all 22 guests, they were happy (OK, the guest with the lost tooth maybe not happy as such, but at least she’d stopped crying)! They had had their dinner on time, the wine tasting activity was lovely, and the entire team felt we’d had a successful evening. That requires immense skill, teamwork, flexibility, people skills and unbelievable service attitude from everyone, at all levels. There were so many moving parts and so many people to deal with – both guests and staff.

And that night when I went to bed and read some more of these ridiculous ‘unskilled’ statements, I just got so furious that I couldn’t get to sleep!

So, to those people who think they are more important and have a more skilled job, than the people I work with, I’d love to see you handle an evening like that!

OK rant over and back to work!

…or lack thereof, is one of the biggest skill gaps in the Tanzanian workforce, in my opinion. People are used to living from day to day, hand to mouth, so it’s not surprising at such but it just causes so many problems at work – both at micro & macro level.

Tuesday was a prime example!

I was due to travel to one of the camps at 1:30pm, together with three of my ‘students’. At 1:25pm I was told that there were another three people who needed  transport and because they had picked up a lot of produce etc for the camp, there was no room. So they wanted to leave two of my students behind… what?!? 

I had arranged the transport three days ago, so how did this happen, I asked. I got a ton of excuses… and very different stories. Ultimately, it was shitty planning or favours promised or or or. However, every problem & issue has its learning moment, so we had a good chat about it. Whether they learnt to do better next time, I don’t know, but I tried! 

Anyway, we set off with me sharing the front seat with one of the security guys coming back from the doctor (not comfortable for either of us!) and we left two chefs behind in the village.

This is normally a drive I enjoy very much as we drive through ‘real’ Tanzania incl. some lovely villages… but the uncomfy seating arrangements really put a dampener on the experience. It was quite an eventful drive, though! 

All of a sudden, the driver (Geoff) stopped next to a guy on a bicycle who had a goat tied to the back of the bike. Geoff demanded that the young man untied the goat – this was when I realised that this poor goat was still alive!

We took photos to shame him… and when the goat was untied it understandably ran away as fast as it could. The guy then dropped his bike to run after the goat… we left, so didn’t see if the goat got away, but I sort of hope so even though that was probably food for this guy’s family… but really no need to make the animal suffer in that way!

Just an hour later, we saw a car suddenly turning from the left hand side of the (dirt) road and straight into the bushes on the right side of the road. The driver had definitely fallen asleep. We stopped to see if all was OK. Nobody injured, all good apart from some damage to the car.

We finally arrived at Mara River Tented Camp. There has been so much rain up here. The grass is super tall so the game viewing is tough. But this is still my favourite camp and I picked up wine on the way in Mugumu, so all is good!

It won’t be a surprise to any of you that I have visited that wine store before. And when I walked in, the lady manager gave me a big smile and a ‘hello, madam ‘I believe in science’ 😃 We had a conversation about religion and beliefs last year, so now that’s my name! Haha

I’ll be here for ten days, which makes me very happy! The first four days at Singita was spent in the classroom doing workshop after workshop! I was so exhausted so had been looking forward to some lovely one-to-one coaching! And a little down time in between to enjoy the wonderful nature! 

Even though I am nowhere near Europe today, I feel the sadness of Brexit day… along with a few other emotions!

I am still totally dumbfounded how millions of people can think this is a good idea. The shortsightedness is astounding!

I am angry at how I (and so many others) have been treated like an intruder who has to seek permission to stay in a country that I have called home, where I have been proud to live and where I have contributed and paid tax for almost 25 years.

I feel sad for all those young Britains who now don’t have the opportunity I had to study and live abroad as an equal.

But most of all I am furious & embarrassed (even though I’m not British) of how so many people are using this as an excuse to show xenophobia and hatred towards others! Behaviours which are role modelled by politicians – what an absolute disgrace! 

A very f*cking sad day indeed… 😢